Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll Reveals Feelings on Banning 'Hip-Drop' Tackle

The Seattle Seahawks have seen hip-drop tackles injure their players before, but banning the tackle has people split. Where does head coach Pete Carroll stand?

The hip-drop tackle has taken over football discourse, making its way up to the commissioner’s office.

The tackle, in which a defender approaches a ball carrier from behind and drags them to the ground. While it is a fairly natural movement and littered across the league, it can put offensive players at risk of being injured. The offensive player’s legs are often bent at vulnerable angles and landed on by defenders.

Early this season, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith was the victim of one against the New York Giants, getting folded along the sideline. At the time, Seahawks fans and players alike were outspoken in their disdain for the play.

Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll celebrates a big play / © Tim Heitman, USA TODAY

Head coach Pete Carroll, however, didn’t take on the same tone when he spoke about the issue on Thursday.

“I’m strongly in favor of taking care of business on that one,” Carroll said. “I really believe that it’s a tackle that the guys can learn to avoid … It will still happen at times, but I hope that we can figure out a way to legislate that, so however they want to go about it. If you go back to the horse collar thing, at one point it was a penalty, then we had to go to fining, and we had to go farther because it’s a dangerous play.”

When it was topical at the time of Smith’s injury, he and veteran linebacker Bobby Wagner were ideologically opposed. Unsurprisingly, most defenders seem opposed to the idea.

That opposition is fair, too. The hip-drop tackle is viewed as an alternative to other dangerous hits and at some point, rule-makers will have to acknowledge that football is a contact sport. People are going to get hurt, and while good-faith attempts at player safety should be encouraged, some feel it tilts the scales too far in the offense’s favor.

Carroll, a defensive coach at heart, acknowledged that side of the table.

“I understand it’s hard on the defensive players, who can understand it more? I think it’s because there’s a decision that’s made in that moment that a guy can do that,” Carroll said. “If we can do it in other areas of our game, we can do it here, and we’re asked to do it every time you hit the quarterback …

“Not everybody is going to agree with me, and I don’t really care.”

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For now, it is still a legal tackle and it’s one the Seahawks themselves will employ. However, Carroll claimed Seattle attempts to avoid it as a means of keeping players safe.

The Seahawks will have to hone in on their fundamentals on Monday Night Football when they host the Philadelphia Eagles.